Subject University Rankings 2013-2014 - Analysis

The publication of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings has become one of the key annual events in the international higher education calendar and these global university league tables are recognised as the world's most authoritative source of broad comparative performance information on universities.

Below, Times Higher Education offers unparalleled analysis of our world rankings results and contextualises those results in light of the rapidly globalising higher education sector.

In the place to beIt’s clear from the continuing power shift from West to East and the success of Boston that real-world geography still plays a vital role in university excellence, even in the networked age, argues Phil Baty

Upward mobilityHead of division at the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Dirk Van Damme, considers the most improved universities in the rankings

Peer-to-peer cultureResearch-led teaching on campus is the best option for academics and students, argues vice-chancellor and president of the Australian National University, Ian Young

Mutually inclusive goalsA commitment to meeting national needs can lead a charge to world-class status, argues vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Witwatersrand, Adam Habib

Highly accomplished outcastsThomson Reuters' product manager for institutional research, Simon Pratt, takes a closer look at the elite graduate schools and specialists excluded from the World University Rankings

New world pecking orderDirector of higher education studies at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, State University of New York, and policy professor at SUNY-Albany, Ben Wildavsky, charts the rise and rise of university rankings, domestic and international